Is Fortress Europe Inevitable?

IT’S TOUGH ENOUGH to keep track of the Eurocrats and their exploits at the best of times, and I must admit I’m as confused as hell about this latest Treaty Of Lisbon, not least of all because of the directed efforts of our so-called government to mislead the population about the treaty itself and, even worse, to try to slip it in under the blanket of confusion caused in the process. It’s just like the Treaty of Nice all over again.

I read an article in the Sunday Business Post over the weekend entitled “What Exactly Are We Reforming In This Treaty?” in which the journo tried to get a copy of the treaty in question in order to understand the issues and what exactly we – as a nation – are being asked to vote on later this year. What he discovered however is that there is a funky clause within this proposed treaty which refers to another treaty, called the “Treaty on the functioning of the European Union” which shall have precedence over the Lisbon Treaty… the only problem is this ‘other’ treaty doesn’t in fact exist. At least not yet. So basically the government can hide anything they want externally to the Lisbon Treaty, but still get us to vote on it… whatever ‘it’ in fact is. Does anyone out there actually know what the hell this treaty is really about?

This is just one more example of how we are being driven to a modern day Fortress Europe from all angles. Politcally its been happening for quite a while. Economically is how it all started and even legally it’s starting to come together, but the one that worries me the most is the military and defence angle. The whole idea of a common European Defence Force just scares the shit out of me when I think of the muppets in charge of it.

Worse still is news today that the latest idea from Fortress Europe central is proposing to implement a futuristic border defence and monitoring policy incorporating biometric checking (digital fingerprinting) at the border entry points, unmanned low-flying drones patrolling the lengths of the border itself, Satellites and sci-fi sensors placed at strategic locations to monitor movements and of course the inevitable massive databases and enforcement organisations that follow such a deployment of technology… all to keep undesirables out of Europe.

What’s next? Minefields? Big shark infested trenches? Basically they seem to want to create one big happy xenophobic federated entity, a massive private club that you can’t join unless you have the right credentials, a massive military force to back up their political views one big fuck-you border solution for the rest of the word to look at, but not over… any of this sounding familiar to you yet?

Let me give you a hint… a certain George Orwell predicted just such a development way back in 1948 when he penned the classic future-shock novel “1984″; little did he know how prophetic it would be. I’ve written previously about how close he came to predicting this future, our future,  in a post entitled “Apocalyptic Binary – The Shape Of Things To Come” which you might find interesting if you have the time to check it out.

So – is this gradual progression to a consolidated European entity inevitable? Is there any middle ground between completely seperate nations and a Fortress Europe? I used to think that having the political and legal/economic advantages were worth loosing our currency, loosing some cultural identity and even loosing some jobs here and there in the process if the end game was a better proposition. Now however I’m not so sure… but that probably says more about my lack of faith in our government than it does about Europe.

Bottom line – I just don’t trust them. I don’t believe they are giving us the full story about this treaty and I really don’t like where this Fortress Europe is heading… but is it too late to do anything about it? Well, for my part I’m going to vote no to this proposed treaty until someone can explain the implications of it to me, in full. It’s a small step, but it’s a start.

What about you?